


Old Rhythm, New Dance

by fogsblue



Series: Doctor Who Prompt Ficlets [23]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-13 01:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2131698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fogsblue/pseuds/fogsblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>3. rhythm and 39. secret admirer - Ten/Rose</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Rhythm, New Dance

It had taken Rose a little while to realise it, though she’d never admit it, that the Doctor moved to a beat all his own. To a song no one else heard. At least, not any more. Through out her time with the first him she had known, the rhythm was lost, she only ever saw it in hindsight. But now, with her new Doctor, she can see it. It’s there in everything he does, in every movement and gesture he makes.

He moves to the rules, to the pace, to the steps, set by a race no longer part of the universe. It takes Rose a while to realise he does this out of respect for a home he now longer has, to remember a people who deserve being remembered.

There’s been moments where she’s wondered if he’s inviting her in, but then he moves to a new step and the opening closes again. Time is meaningless as they travel, so she’s never sure how long they travel, how long his dance continues. How long she wishes he would show her the steps, let her take a place by his side. She learns that if she steps in, he will let her, he’ll take her hand and let her find the rhythm to his dance, but for his own reasons he’ll never invite her, never offer his hand and let her learn the song.

Until he does. 

After an impossible trip, she can see his steps falter, rhythm lost and it takes everything in her to not jump in, to hold him up. To support him until he’s ready to dance once more. She doesn’t have to. He offers his hand, waiting for her to take and when she does, when she does, he smiles. As he spins her around the universe, Rose realises something. For all the time she thought she was simply watching, the Doctor’s been watching her, learning her rhythm and teaching her the steps to a dance he was creating for them.


End file.
